Project Tau by bestselling and multi-award-winning author Jude Austin is the recipient of the BREW Readers’ Choice Award for March 2022 and the BREW Readers’ Choice Award – Science Fiction Realism of 2022.

Book Details

  • Title: Project Tau
  • Author: Jude Austin
  • Genre: Fiction (sci-fi realism; non-dystopian, character-driven sci-fi with very little actual science)
  • First Publication Date: 11 October 2016
  • ISBN or ASIN: B01MF6X57D

About the Book

Project Tau is the first book in the sci-fi realism Projects series. As befits the sci-fi realism genre, there are no epic space battles, no dystopian governments, no post-apocalyptic zombie-filled irradiated wastelands and absolutely no androids/AI. Sci-fi realism is something of a new/niche subgenre that is character and world-driven, instead of science-driven.

There is, however, strong language, making Project Tau a book that is best suited to older readers.

Freshman Kalin Taylor is about to start classes at the most prestigious college in existence, SACAS. His major: medical science. His goal: to become involved in the development and training of Projects – human clones – a science which is still very much in its infancy in Kalin’s universe and undertaken solely by the scientific mega-corporation, GenTech.

He has one more burning ambition: to gain entry into the fraternity. Doing so will change his life for the better; he’ll be one of the popular kids, thus guaranteeing an easy ride through the social minefield of college life and an end to his status as a social outcast.

His initiation stunt? Sneak into a private GenTech laboratory, take a picture of “Project Tau” and sneak back out again.
Needless to say, it all goes very, very wrong. The laboratory administrator, Mason, offers him a deal: become GenTech’s guinea pig for two weeks and he’ll brush Kalin’s breaking-and-entering under the carpet, which will allow him to continue his studies at SACAS and later pursue a career with GenTech itself. Refuse, and Mason will not only report him to the dean – resulting in immediate expulsion – but he’ll also ensure Kalin’s name is blacklisted throughout the scientific and medical industry, a threat that GenTech is more than influential enough to carry out.

Kalin signs and is promptly stripped of his ID and wallet and sent to billet with Project Tau. To his shock, Tau – unlike the handful of other, animalistic Projects in existence – is both intelligent and articulate.

When GenTech fakes his death, Kalin – now forcibly renamed Project Kata – ends up living the life he dreamed of, only he’s on the wrong side of the fence. Projects are viewed as less than animals, to be trained for whatever purpose their future human owners desire, no matter how brutal that training may be.

Stripped of his identity and facing life as no more than a piece of livestock with fewer rights than an animal, Kalin’s going to have to reach into places he never knew he had in order to save himself and Tau from the scientists’ brutal, often sadistic treatment before they’re both sold apart and disappear forever.

Additional Information

  • This is the first book in the multi-award-winning Projects series.
  • Contains strong language.
  • Also available in audiobook format.

JA, 5 December 2021

The above information had been supplied by the author or publisher.

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7 thoughts on “Featured Book: “Project Tau” by Jude Austin”
  1. […] “Project Tau” by multi-award-winning and bestselling Jude Austin is the first book of the Projects series. It is a futuristic science fiction that follows Kalin Taylor, a college student who gets inside the high-security laboratory of GenTech and faces a terrible future at the hands of unscrupulous scientists. It is a recipient of the BREW Readers’ Choice Award for March 2022 and Science Fiction Realism of 2021/2022. […]

  2. What I love the most is that what got Kalin into so much trouble was something so human as the need to feel like he belonged. I’m all for “Sci-fi realism” and more relatable stories, such as this one.